Mammoth task of uncovering corruption

IF it took the Flood Tribunal almost four years to determine the purpose of three separate payments to just one politician, Ray Burke, how long will it need to examine allegations that Frank Dunlop alone paid out almost £300,000 to dozens of councillors in the early 1990s?

The sheer volume of material the tribunal’s legal team has amassed from private interviews with developers and over 100 past and present members of Dublin County Council should ensure the Ray Burke modules will retrospectively come to be regarded as just the appetiser for the main course. Mr Dunlop’s unexpected, whistle-blowing performance at the tribunal in April 2000 has laid the groundwork for much of the tribunal’s work away from the public glare over the past 18 months.

As such, Mr Dunlop’s eagerly-awaited evidence to the inquiry threatens to expose a web of corruption at the heart of planning in Dublin County Council over the past two decades.